to move, strike, shut, catch, etc., with a sharp sound, as a door, lid, or lock.

4.

to break suddenly, especially with a sharp, cracking sound, as something slender and brittle:

The branch snapped.

5.

to act or move with quick or abrupt motions of the body:

to snap to attention.

6.

Photography. to take a photograph, especially without formal posing of the subject.

7.

to make a quick or sudden bite or grab (often followed by at).

8.

to utter a quick, sharp sentence or speech, especially a command, reproof, retort, etc. (often followed by at).

9.

to be radiant; sparkle; flash, as the eyes.

verb (used with object), snapped, snapping.

10.

to seize with or take, buy, or obtain as with a quick bite or grab (followed by up or off):

The bargains were snapped up.

11.

to secure, judge, vote, etc., hastily:

They snapped the bill through Congress.

12.

to cause to make a sudden, sharp sound:

to snap one's fingers.

13.

to crack (a whip).

14.

to bring, strike, shut, open, operate, etc., with a sharp sound or movement:

to snap a lid down.

15.

to address or interrupt (a person) quickly and sharply.

16.

to say or utter (words, a command, a retort, etc.) in a quick, sharp manner:

to snap complaints.

17.

to break suddenly, especially with a cracking sound:

to snap a stick in half.

18.

Photography. to take a photograph of, especially quickly.

19.

Digital Technology. to use a smartphone or other digital device to scan (a QR code or other source) in order to read the encoded text or URL and to browse the hyperlinked website or Web page.

20.

Building Trades. to transfer (a line) to a surface by means of a chalk line.

21.

Football. to put (the ball) into play by tossing it back to the quarterback or other member of the offensive backfield, especially from between the legs when bent over double and facing the line of scrimmage; center.

22.

Hunting. to fire (a shot) quickly, especially without raising the gun to aim from the eye.

noun

23.

a quick, sudden action or movement, as the flick of a whip or the breaking of a twig.

24.

a short, sharp sound, as that caused by breaking a twig or closing a latch.

late 15c., "quick, sudden bite or cut," from Dutch or Low German snappen "to snap," probably related to Middle Low German or Middle Dutch snavel "bill, beak," from West Germanic *snu-, an imitative root forming words having to do with the nose (see snout).

As an adjective from 1790. Commonly used to indicate instantaneous action, e.g. snap judgment (1841). Sense of "quick movement" is first recorded 1630s; that of "something easily done" is 1877. Meaning "brief or sudden spell" of weather (usually cold) is from 1740. Meaning "catch or fastener that closes with a snapping sound" is from 1815. The card game name is attested from 1881, from a call used in the game. Meaning "a snap-shot" is from 1894. U.S. football sense is from 1912, earlier snap-back (1880), which also was a name for the center position. Snap, Crackle and Pop, cartoon characters associated with Kellogg breakfast cereal Rice Krispies, are from 1940.

v.

1520s, of animals, "to make a quick bite," from snap (n.). Meaning "to break suddenly or sharply" is first recorded c.1600; the mental sense is from 1970s. Meaning "come into place with a snap" is from 1793. Meaning "take a photograph" is from 1890. U.S. football sense first recorded 1887. Related: Snapped; snapping. To snap the fingers is from 1670s. Phrase snap out of it recorded by 1907. Snapping turtle is attested from 1784. Snap-brim (adj.) in reference to a type of hat is from 1928.

1. To remove indirection, e.g. by replacing a pointer to a pointer with a pointer to the final target (see chase pointers). The underlying metaphor may be a rubber band stretched through a number of points; if you release it from the intermediate points, it snaps to a straight line from first to last. Often a trampoline performs an error check once and then snaps the pointer that invoked it so subsequent calls will bypass the trampoline (and its one-shot error check). In this context one also speaks of "snapping links". For example, in a Lisp implementation, a function interface trampoline might check to make sure that the caller is passing the correct number of arguments; if it is, and if the caller and the callee are both compiled, then snapping the link allows that particular path to use a direct procedure-call instruction with no further overhead. [Jargon File] (2006-05-27) 2. snap dump. (2006-05-27)